Breaking the law: introduce a sin-bin in football for not-so-nasty fouls

Robin van Persie, then of Arsenal, gets sent off against Barcelona in 2011. 'Surely kicking the ball away did not merit a red card. In those situations, a five-minute sin bin would suffice.' Photograph: Jasper Juinen/Getty Images

Opinion was split. Roger Milford, a former referee, felt that the introduction of a sin-bin would make referees too “dictatorial” while my colleague, Paul Wilson, argued strongly against it. However George Courtney, who refereed at two World Cups, was in favour. “It would have to be under the right criteria but I think the time has come to seriously consider sin-bin,” Courtney said. “I expect the international board would be considering them. Red-card offences should still be punished with a red card but maybe for some other offences it would work.”

Michel Platini has advocated something similar: white cards and 10-minute sin-bins for dissent. “It should not be confused in any way with the yellow card, which for its part is dedicated to fouls within the game,” Uefa’s president said last October.

Football does not always like change. It can be stubbornly resistant to it and that is certainly commendable when an idea looks like it has been put forward simply because its creator was bored at work, but sometimes protecting tradition with stuck-in-the-mud attitudes is detrimental to the sport.

It is hard, for instance, to see who benefited from the long wait for goal-line technology and there are still calls for referees to be able to access video replays for controversial incidents. “People hide behind tradition and try to keep things the way they’ve always been,” Andrea Pirlo says in his autobiography. “They pretend they’ve forgotten we used to wear pointed studs and played with a ball that weighed a kilo.”

Everything in moderation, of course, but the argument in favour of sin-bins is worth considering at the very least. In fact, referees may welcome them with open arms. Increasingly beleaguered and overexposed this season, there is a chance that sin-bins could both lessen anger felt over controversial decisions and also minimise the impact of refereeing mistakes. In a perfect world, the orange (or white) card – Champagne and Platini can argue over the colours – would have a liberating effect on referees and grant them greater freedom on the pitch.

There is no desire to change the law regarding straight red cards (although I have argued previously in this series that the authorities could tweak the law regarding the denial of goalscoring opportunities). Violent or unsportsmanlike conduct and dangerous or cynical play should always constitute a straight red card and there should not be any argument about that. Equally a second yellow card for a cynical foul, such as the one Holland’s John Heitinga received for bundling into the back of Andrés Iniesta in extra time of the 2010 World Cup final, should be the end of a player’s participation in the game.

Yet how often do we see referees shy away from showing cautions for fouls committed by a player who is already on a booking? Judging from the stands, the suspicion is that this happens because officials are scared of the reaction should it turn out that they made the wrong decision, and this is where a sin-bin could come in handy: a player commits a foul, receives an orange card, is forced off the field temporarily (I am open to suggestions over timings) and knows that a third yellow card will mean he is off for good.

It would give the offending player a chance to cool down and the team with an extra player would have plenty of time to take advantage, adding a new tactical element to the game, with managers of both sides forced to tweak and adjust their tactics while the sin-bin is in force.

No doubt those who argue against sin-bins will say that they would encourage thuggish tactics if players knew the punishment was not going to be quite as harsh. Yet that does not have to be the case. Bad tackles would still be dealt with appropriately, while the sin-bin could also be applied to players who have not been booked but who take one for the team by stopping counter-attacks with cynical little fouls.

The reason red cards provoke so much fury is because of their finality, but there are times when a dismissal for two yellow cards seems excessive. The punishment does not always fit the crime. Watching Liverpool’s victory over AFC Wimbledon last Monday, you feared for Adebayo Akinfenwa when he was booked in the first half for one too many clumsy fouls on Martin Skrtel. There was no malice, it was just a case of a League Two striker being made to look a little lumbering by a superior defender – come on, Liverpool’s defence isn’t that bad – and Akinfenwa was merely trying to throw his considerable weight around, without ever looking like he was going to cause a serious injury.

He actually ended up doing it pretty well once he got to grips with the challenge, scoring Wimbledon’s equaliser and causing Liverpool various problems, but there was always the chance that one foot out of line could have earned Akinfenwa a red card.

Essentially he would have been penalised for being out of his depth against a side with aspirations of qualifying for the Champions League and we should guard against that. Is it right that players should be punished so harshly for mistiming an honest challenge?

An incident that comes to mind is James Collins’s red card against Tottenham Hotspur on the opening day of the season, when the West Ham United defender stepped forward, misjudged a fairly innocuous tackle on Emmanuel Adebayor and received a second booking (his first yellow came after he was beaten for pace by Erik Lamela). Collins was walking before the referee had even reached for his pocket but he had hardly played a dirty game and, in those situations, there is a case for a player sitting out for 10 or 15 minutes.

There are other technical infringements to which the sin-bin could be applied. Take Robin van Persie’s red card for Arsenal when they were knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona in 2011. Already on a booking, he rather ridiculously received a second yellow for having a shot after the whistle had gone for offside and Arsenal, who were leading 3-2 on aggregate at the time, were knocked out. Arsenal were justifiably unimpressed but leaving aside whether or not Van Persie deserved to be booked, surely kicking the ball away like that did not merit a red card. In those situations, a five-minute sin-bin would suffice.

Sometimes footballers cannot help themselves in the heat of the moment, yet they do not really mean anything by it when they release some of their frustration by throwing or kicking a ball away. Liverpool’s Fabio Borini was annoyed, for a split second, when he chucked the ball down against Arsenal last month after a throw-in didn’t go his way and he was off a few minutes later after committing a foul.

I think back to a game between West Ham and Charlton Athletic in 2006, when Charlton’s Djimi Traoré managed to get himself sent off for two bookings, the first for fouling Lee Bowyer, the second for blocking Bowyer’s attempt to take a quick free-kick. A rush of blood, sure, but was it really worthy of a red card? Surely he could have gone off for a few minutes to think about being less like Djimi Traoré. Charlton were winning 1-0 when it happened, around 20 minutes in, but ended up losing 3-1.

Open dissent to the referee, foul-mouthed abuse or outright intimidation, is different. But, too often, referees do not punish dissent. The most famous example is when Graham Poll allowed Wayne Rooney to stay on the pitch during a match between Arsenal and Manchester United in 2005. The abuse from Rooney towards the referee was sustained and vitriolic, but referees tend to let it go. They can do without the hassle. But a sin-bin would change that. It would change everything.

And if you’re wondering what we would do about goalkeepers, the offending team would just have to lose an outfield player for the allotted time. Either that or every team gets their very own Fifa-sanctioned Harry Kane clone, only to be used in goalkeeper sin-bin emergencies.